MSDN Documentation

Intelligent Query Processing (IQP)

Leverage the power of IQP to automatically improve query performance with minimal application changes. Key features include:

• Batch Mode Memory Grant Feedback
• Interleaved Execution for Tautology Elimination
• Cardinality Estimation Feedback

Explore how IQP adapts to your workload and optimizes resource utilization.

Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR)

Significantly reduce instance and database restart times with ADR. It isolates the impact of long-running transactions on other database operations, leading to faster recovery.

Learn more about the components of ADR, including the Persistent Version Store (PVS) and log scan processes.

Memory-Optimized TempDB Metadata

Reduce contention on tempdb metadata by moving internal metadata structures into memory. This improves concurrency for workloads that frequently create and drop temporary objects.

Always Encrypted with Secure Enclaves

Enhance data protection by performing operations on encrypted data within a secure enclave. This protects sensitive data even from privileged database users.

Understand how secure enclaves work and the types of operations they support.

Dynamic Data Masking Enhancements

Expand the capabilities of Dynamic Data Masking to mask more data types and introduce new masking functions for greater control over sensitive information exposure.

Microsoft Defender for SQL

Integrate with Microsoft Defender for Cloud to gain advanced threat detection and vulnerability assessment capabilities for your SQL Server deployments.

Log Chain Creation and Management

Simplified log chain management for Always On Availability Groups, reducing the complexity of setting up and maintaining replicas.

Data Virtualization with PolyBase

Query data residing in external sources (like Hadoop, Azure Blob Storage, or other SQL Server instances) as if it were local to your SQL Server instance.

Learn about connecting to various data sources and the performance benefits of PolyBase.

T-SQL Enhancements

Benefit from new T-SQL functions and syntax improvements that streamline development and enhance code readability.

• DATETIME2_BUCKET_COUNT for time-series analysis
• STRING_SPLIT with an optional ordinal parameter

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) Updates

Explore the latest features in SSDT for Visual Studio, including improved IntelliSense, schema comparison, and project management for database development.

Azure SQL Managed Instance Enhancements

Discover the continuous improvements to Azure SQL Managed Instance, offering near 100% compatibility with SQL Server Enterprise Edition in a fully managed cloud service.

Features include improved service tiers, new networking options, and enhanced security integrations.

Hybrid Data Solutions

Leverage new capabilities for seamless integration between on-premises SQL Server and Azure cloud services, enabling hybrid scenarios like automated backups to Azure Blob Storage.